The above is the reason for Smith becoming a very common name: There are a lot of professions using Smith in the title: Black smith, silver smith, gold smith.

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In Wales UK a common surname is said to be Jones, and so...

A Russian spy was dropped by parachute in the Welsh hills with instructions to contact a Mr Jones in the small village of Llanfair and give him the coded message: “The tulips are blooming well today.”
Arriving at the village he asked a small boy where Mr Jones lived and was directed to a small cottage.
He knocked on the door and the owner emerged: “Are you Mr Jones?”
“I am.”
“The tulips are blooming well today.”
Mr Jones stared at him in amazement then smiled: “Ah, you must have the wrong house.
“It's Jones the Spy you want.”

Almost all last names had some particular meaning long ago. For example.

My last name is Cadwallader (Welsh), which meant strategist (actually battle planner) in the distant past. I am not sure if the word still has that meaning in modern Welsh.​

BTW: The English were (perhaps still are) clever in sneaky ways.

There was a time when England & Wales fought over sovereignty. Hundreds of years ago (when some English king was circa 35-40), The English proposed that Wales accept England as sovereign with the promise that a prince of Wales would always be chosen as the next king of England after the demise of the current king.

The above seemed like a good deal to the Welsh.

20-40 years later, Wales & England were completely integrated, with the Welsh having no army or police force of their own. From that time on, The English king has always appointed some English noble to be a prince of Wales & later appoints him to be king of England.

England always appoints some member of the royal family to be the Prince of Wales & that prince becomes the King of England.

In modern times the above is not particularly important, but there was a long period of time when it was important.

Almost all last names had some particular meaning long ago. For example.

My last name is Cadwallader (Welsh), which meant strategist (actually battle planner) in the distant past. I am not sure if the word still has that meaning in modern Welsh.​

BTW: The English were (perhaps still are) clever in sneaky ways.

There was a time when England & Wales fought over sovereignty. Hundreds of years ago (when some English king was circa 35-40), The English proposed that Wales accept England as sovereign with the promise that a prince of Wales would always be chosen as the next king of England after the demise of the current king.

The above seemed like a good deal to the Welsh.

20-40 years later, Wales & England were completely integrated, with the Welsh having no army or police force of their own. From that time on, The English king has always appointed some English noble to be a prince of Wales & later appoints him to be king of England.

England always appoints some member of the royal family to be the Prince of Wales & that prince becomes the King of England.

In modern times the above is not particularly important, but there was a long period of time when it was important.

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My understanding of history was that Edward I promised to appoint someone who did not speak English as the Prince of Wales. He then appointed a baby, his infant son. Since then the heir to the throne (usually the king's son) has always been the prince of Wales

Just a sad note to the Toronto Tragedy linked to german, there the word for dangerous is gefaehrlich, from the root fahren, to travel, to Gefaehrt, vehicles, possibly drawn by a horse. pferd. safer to stay home. dangers lurk outside.
very interesting list of origins !!!

Just a sad note to the Toronto Tragedy linked to german, there the word for dangerous is gefaehrlich, from the root fahren, to travel, to Gefaehrt, vehicles, possibly drawn by a horse. pferd. safer to stay home. dangers lurk outside.
very interesting list of origins !!!

well, perhaps gefahr came from the dangers associated with fahren to travel.
Thought of another one while puttering in the garden:
Traffic in german is Verkehr, from verkehrt, gone wrong. haha. some genius back then foresaw gridlock.

Might I suggest you look at the links I posted a bit closer, because they already point out the falsehoods

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bold added for emphasis
Yeah, I did and obviously I took the connection one step deeper. should have posted in the funny section.
not falsehoods, funnies. one not do funny, coming for me in the next 30 years is:
sterben, from starving. dying because of lack of oxygen, nutrients, nerve impulses.

I couldn't help but notice you're reading from the "Swedish" section. That's not what the link is pointing to; notice the section-name in the URL. Perhaps you should scroll up a bit, to the "German" section. You know, German, the language you were talking about?

I guess one of us indeed needs to "think before they try to make a stink."

Ah, it was funny to you, but you can't explain it. And perhaps it was deeply true to you, but it is false for everyone else. It must be frustrating, living in your own world with your own truth that you can't explain to others.

From Old Swedishfara, from Old Norsefara, from Proto-Germanic*Pfaraną, from Proto-Indo-European*por-(“going, passage”).
The more language realized the danger in travelling the better. The vikings, the Dutch deutsch were great travellers fahren macht erfahren von den gefahren.
erfahren, experienced comes from travel too.
hope this is tolerated on an new english, not proto english site.

From Old Swedishfara, from Old Norsefara, from Proto-Germanic*Pfaraną, from Proto-Indo-European*por-(“going, passage”).
The more language realized the danger in travelling the better. The vikings, the Dutch deutsch were great travellers fahren macht erfahren von den gefahren.
erfahren, experienced comes from travel too.
hope this is tolerated on an new english, not proto english site.

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So you're just going to ignore that you're wrong, and continue spouting this nonsense? Looks like I was right indeed: you are "living in your own world with your own truth". Good luck with that.